The American Senate adopted on Tuesday an envelope, fiercely negotiated in recent months, validating 60 billion dollars for Ukraine and funds for Israel and Taiwan, but the text is for the moment doomed to failure, since the Republicans allied to Donald Trump in the House of Representatives showed their refusal to examine this text as it stands on Monday evening.
And without Republican support, the text can go nowhere.
Despite everything, this new step by Congress towards the adoption of aid to kyiv, blocked for several months, was welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who said he was “grateful” to the American senators.
“For us, in Ukraine, continued American aid helps save human lives from Russian terror” while “we are fighting for freedom, democracy,” he declared on the social network X.
A distant standoff between Biden and Trump
Democrats and Republicans have been torn apart for months in the American Congress over the question of aid to Ukraine, an ally of the United States, at war with Russia for almost two years.
The Democrats are, in the vast majority, in favor.
The Republicans are divided between interventionist hawks, pro-Ukraine, and lieutenants of Donald Trump, much more isolationist.
In the midst of the presidential campaign, the equation has transformed into a long-distance standoff between President Joe Biden, who is urgently demanding these new funds, and Donald Trump, who claims that if he were re-elected in November, he would settle the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours”, without really explaining how.
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So, who cares whether the Democratic president supports the project, or whether he urged Congress to “adopt it quickly.”
In exchange for the adoption of aid to kyiv, the Republicans are demanding a significant strengthening of migration policy, particularly on the border with Mexico.
And “in the absence of any modification” from the Senate on the subject, “the House of Representatives will continue to work according to its own will on these important issues,” he assured.
“We are helping Ukraine with more than $100 billion more than NATO,” Donald Trump insisted Monday evening on his Truth Social network.
“NATO must equalize, and now,” he demanded.